USPTO Unveils New Patent Cover Design at South by Southwest (SXSW)

Austin - The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today unveiled the new design of the patent grant cover during a special ceremony at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The redesigned cover will debut on patent number 10 million which is expected to issue sometime in 2018.

“American ingenuity has been at the forefront of every major technological revolution of the past two centuries, from steam engines to flight, and from the biotechnology revolution to the information revolution,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, Andrei Iancu. “This new patent design not only celebrates how far we’ve come and the new frontiers we have yet to explore, it also represents the cornerstone and the currency of an American intellectual property system that has given so much to the world and will continue to do so for ages to come.”

The patent grant cover represents the physical document issued to inventors upon the granting of a U.S. patent. The 225-plus year history of the patent cover has seen fewer than a dozen basic designs since President George Washington granted the first patent in 1790. Previous designs featured calligraphy, elaborate engravings, and high-quality typesetting.

The patent office has only redesigned the document twice in the last hundred years, and the current design is more than 30 years old. A team of in-house USPTO graphic designers created the new patent cover design. After several iterations, Commissioner for Patents Drew Hirshfeld made the final selection.

“This new design portrays a modern day flair while reflecting the history of patent covers by taking design cues from 19th and early 20th century patent cover designs, mostly through the use of script typography and graphic ornaments,” said Commissioner for Patents Drew Hirshfeld. “When our designers and Patents team were creating the new cover we wanted to create a design worthy of the significance importance that the document itself has to inventors, and its significance as a physical representation of American invention and ingenuity.”